I dreamed that we were on a starship and that most of the passengers were being kept in stasis. I, one of the crew, was being woken up. There was a crisis.

Everyone wore bright orange jumpsuits, as though they were prisoners. Indeed, they were, I realized, and we were transporting them to some penal colony. The crisis was that we were being sighted by an alien ship.

The aliens were unseen, speaking to use through what looked like a kind of periscope that could stretch, bend, and peer around corners. The captain was having difficulty communicating and asked me.

The alien said "I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts" and I wondered if he learned English from watching C Span.

I started to speak the periscope moved up and down, peering quizzically. Then the alien said "Oh, I know you! Your sister has visited us, and she told me you and your husband were coming to our world."

And this is what my dream has tonight (wide awake at 2 am after waking up from a long, drug-induced slumber — the doctor diagnosed acute sinusitis and gave me some high powered medicines._)